Transdisciplinary Research for Ocean Sustainability

Closing Event of the Research Cooperation

Date:
24 May 2023
10-12:30

Place:

Wissenschaftsforum Berlin

What does it need for transdisciplinary marine research to be successful? This overarching question was posed when researchers from five projects within the Belmont Forum, Future Earth and JPI Oceans joint action „Transdisciplinary Research for Ocean Sustainability” joined for a final workshop in Berlin on May 23^rd to 24^th. The discussion was organized by the synCRAocean project, which served as coordination project across the Belmont projects with German participants, and as this was funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). Despite the five projects (MARISCO, MULTI-FRAME, NOCRISES, OceanFrontCHANGE, SHIPTRASE) handling a wide range of topics from biodiversity to ship emissions, the researchers came up with 10 joint recommendations on the why, what and how of such projects: Why do we need transdisciplinary research for ocean sustainability? What is needed to conduct transdisciplinary research? How can we ensure the success of these projects?

These recommendations were simultaneously illustrated by Charlotte Hintzmann, a graphical harvester. On the next day, the output was handed over to Germany’s special representative for the Oceans, Dr. Sebastian Unger, together with a brochure on project-specific results of each of the transnational projects in the call. These included policy recommendations developed by the involved projects ranging from regulatory frameworks for ocean multi-use, management of ocean fronts, shipping effluents and fuels, democratic participation and blue justice, to biodiversity assessment. “There is no question how important transdisciplinary projects will be to secure the future of our oceans”, summarizes Helmut Hillebrand, lead PI of the MARISCO and synCRAocean projects. “But these projects exist in a political and scientific context that needs to be acknowledged by funding agencies, researchers and stakeholders.” The final networking session, hosted by the HIFMB, therefore invited the participants to discuss the policy recommendations and to further strengthen the exchange between science and policy.

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